Developer Update - Upcoming Social Features
Endorsements and Looking for Group are coming to Overwatch!

Endorsements

After a match ends, you can recognize players on either team for certain gameplay behaviors that they did well.

The three endorsement areas are: Sportsmanship, Good Teammate (your team only), and Shot Caller (your team only)

If your team could really use a Mei instead of Hanzo and someone switches, that might be a time you recognize them for being a good teammate.

Players on your team that call plays in a positive, effective, and respectful way are Shot Callers.

You will see other players and how they have been endorsed.

The system has built in decay, so you won't be able to be earn a lot of endorsements and then stay at that level forever.

If you are silenced or suspended, you lose all endorsements.

You get a minor reward for endorsing other people and you can only endorse a limited number of people per match.

People who hit high endorsement levels frequently will get rewarded as well.

Looking for Group

You can create a group to your exact specifications. If you want 2 Tanks, 2 Damage, and 2 Healers, you can restrict your group to those roles, as well as restrict people with those roles to only play those roles.

You can name your group, so require voice chat or trying to reach Diamond can be in the group name.

You'll have a better experience if you have some say in what the other people on your team are doing.

It isn't a matchmaking system. You are either making a group or joining a group manually, there is no automatic grouping.

Misc

The Offense and Defense roles have been collapsed into Damage. The game will only have 3 roles now.

Player profiles can be set to private, friends only, or public. Your profile will be set to private by default.

The Symmetra re-work (moving to Damage) is coming in the patch.

The Horizon Lunar Colony map will also receive significant changes. On Point B, you can no longer attack from the defender's spawn room from the safety of the healing zone. There is some new art and lore in the map as well.

More social systems are on the way. More in the late summer or early fall!

Bad idea IMO, they did serve 2 different purposes even if both "did dps". Just another excuse to do silly things like play torb on attack every game "but he's in the attack role!"

They should have left it as is, moved those who are basically pure dps out (snipers, bastion) and added more defensive types in.

I like it, and is actually something I've wishlisted.

While some of the heroes are more clear cut where they should be used, others aren't. While an attack Torb is pretty much never as good as other DPS options, an attack Bastion on Junkertown is solid or Junkrat on a number of maps regardless of side. There are also many situations where a sniper is actually much better on attack then defense (for example, the first point of a 2cp map where solo picks for the attackers are a lot more valuable). And on King of the Hill maps, a lot of the heroes usefulness can depend on whether you're pushing the point or holding it, even though the game classifies both teams as "attacking."

What I would like to see instead is smarter information for individual heroes listing their strengths and weaknesses somewhere on the screen when you've selected them. I'd also like to see better and more specific comp tips for the team as a whole; instead of just too many/not enough of [role], how about pointing out an attack Symmetra isn't ideal or there's too many flankers, or the team roster is too squishy? Those would be helpful to players who are trying but aren't familiar enough to always make the best decision, while gently prodding people to make better comp choices.

Ultimately, the problem with people picking bad heroes is a problem with those people and how Blizzard chooses to classify a hero isn't really going to fix that. Do you think most Torb mains instalock him because they are unaware he's not optimal on attack?

While some of the heroes are more clear cut where they should be used, others aren't. While an attack Torb is pretty much never as good as other DPS options, an attack Bastion on Junkertown is solid or Junkrat on a number of maps regardless of side. There are also many situations where a sniper is actually much better on attack then defense (for example, the first point of a 2cp map where solo picks for the attackers are a lot more valuable). And on King of the Hill maps, a lot of the heroes usefulness can depend on whether you're pushing the point or holding it, even though the game classifies both teams as "attacking."

What I would like to see instead is smarter information for individual heroes listing their strengths and weaknesses somewhere on the screen when you've selected them. I'd also like to see better and more specific comp tips for the team as a whole; instead of just too many/not enough of [role], how about pointing out an attack Symmetra is isn't ideal or the team has tooo many flankers, or the team roster is too squishy? Those would be helpful to players who are trying but aren't familiar enough to always make the best decisions, while gently prodding people to make better comp decisions.

Ultimately, the problem with people picking bad heroes is a problem with those people and how Blizzard chooses to classify a hero isn't really going to fix that. Do you think most Torb mains instalock him because they are unaware he's not optimal on attack?

From current PTR testing, Symmetra isn't looking good in just about any situation O.o.

But I mean, I see your point, I just don't agree with it :P no point in arguing though! I just wish they would have developed defense more instead of trashing it.

This Endorsement looks like it will a painful, unfair and just god awful grind to get the rewards from it. It will be abused by those who have many friends ingame as well. I take the game very serious and my upbringing has tought me to not settle with stupidity etc. If someone pick a bad hero, I will let them know and I will try to make them swap. I don't turn to calling them names but I am not that nice if people play bad.

And I don't think you should. People ONLY learn from pain. This whole "hey you are good and perfect the way you are and if anyone say anything bad to you we punish them" like we already see in Overwatch, with over-sensitive silence system etc (and in other games) is a cancer to gaming and to IRL. Blizzard need to stop treating us like babies and cater to the "opressed and offended".

In the video Jeff give example of these things. Jeff is not in touch with the real world. He sit in his nice office, shielded from how the world works and how people talk and interact. In the video he say like "Hey mr Hanzo can you please swap" but in real life people say "Hanzo, change fucking hero NOW" or worse, which is FINE. That Hanzo is wasting the time and costing the other people rating.

You don't have to swear but telling people off is fine, that's how we work in games. This endorsement system is encouraging people to pretend to be nice with a wide fake smile and try to keep calm while kissing as much ass they can to get voted for. Am I the only one who is disgusted by this?

I am salty cause I will never get the endorsement things, but also becuase it's a bad system. We are not robots, we are humans with emotions. The people I play with are either my best friends (if we win) or my worst enemies (if we lose), and if I am the one who mess up myself I expect people to hate me, it's fine, I ruined their game.

Overwatch is and should not be some safe space, just like the real world is no safe space.

This Endorsement looks like it will a painful, unfair and just god awful grind to get the rewards from it. It will be abused by those who have many friends ingame as well. I take the game very serious and my upbringing has tought me to not settle with stupidity etc. If someone pick a bad hero, I will let them know and I will try to make them swap. I don't turn to calling them names but I am not that nice if people play bad.

And I don't think you should. People ONLY learn from pain. This whole "hey you are good and perfect the way you are and if anyone say anything bad to you we punish them" like we already see in Overwatch, with over-sensitive silence system etc (and in other games) is a cancer to gaming and to IRL. Blizzard need to stop treating us like babies and cater to the "opressed and offended".

In the video Jeff give example of these things. Jeff is not in touch with the real world. He sit in his nice office, shielded from how the world works and how people talk and interact. In the video he say like "Hey mr Hanzo can you please swap" but in real life people say "Hanzo, change fucking hero NOW" or worse, which is FINE. That Hanzo is wasting the time and costing the other people rating.

You don't have to swear but telling people off is fine, that's how we work in games. This endorsement system is encouraging people to pretend to be nice with a wide fake smile and try to keep calm while kissing as much ass they can to get voted for. Am I the only one who is disgusted by this?

No, that's just how you and some others work in games, not even remotely how everyone does, so don't talk about "we" as the collective playerbase. Speaking of working, in my experience 99.99% of the time when someone acts offensively to get other people to do what they want it doesn't happen, only thing that does is more toxicity and tilting in return, and the whole match goes straight to hell in a hand basket. I have fairly decent success rate with suggesting changes because I keep it neutral. No, it doesn't always work, but I know with certainty that going off on them will not do it either, just gonna make things even worse. Conversely, if someone is being an ass to me I'm not going to reward that by giving them what they want either. I have and will switch if someone asks politely.

Originally Posted by Battlebeard

I am salty cause I will never get the endorsement things, but also becuase it's a bad system. We are not robots, we are humans with emotions. The people I play with are either my best friends (if we win) or my worst enemies (if we lose), and if I am the one who mess up myself I expect people to hate me, it's fine, I ruined their game.

You said it yourself, the underlined part is exactly why we shouldn't act like dicks to each other, even when things get frustrating. Better to take a little break.

Originally Posted by Battlebeard

Overwatch is and should not be some safe space, just like the real world is no safe space.

It's a game, it's not supposed to be just like the real world, the point is fun entertainment.

No, that's just how you and some others work in games, not even remotely how everyone does, so don't talk about "we" as the collective playerbase. Speaking of working, in my experience 99.99% of the time when someone acts offensively to get other people to do what they want it doesn't happen, only thing that does is more toxicity and tilting in return, and the whole match goes straight to hell in a hand basket. I have fairly decent success rate with suggesting changes because I keep it neutral. No, it doesn't always work, but I know with certainty that going off on them will not do it either, just gonna make things even worse. Conversely, if someone is being an ass to me I'm not going to reward that by giving them what they want either. I have and will switch if someone asks politely.

You said it yourself, the underlined part is exactly why we shouldn't act like dicks to each other, even when things get frustrating. Better to take a little break.

It's a game, it's not supposed to be just like the real world, the point is fun entertainment.

Yes, fair enough, I generalize a bit too much but on the other hand I am certainly not alone either.

Yes, it's a game, but I am not looking forward to grind endorsement levels day in and day out, keeping a smile on my face in the most awful situations, like when grouped with trolls, throwers or one-trickers, when I in reality wanna blow my brains out.

If we are lucky, the rewards are only XP or currencies like the gold-currency or competitive points or maybe extra lootboxes and hopefully not exclusive permanent endorsement rewards, like exclusive skins, player icons or sprays.

Yes, fair enough, I generalize a bit too much but on the other hand I am certainly not alone either.

Yes, it's a game, but I am not looking forward to grind endorsement levels day in and day out, keeping a smile on my face in the most awful situations, like when grouped with trolls, throwers or one-trickers, when I in reality wanna blow my brains out.

If we are lucky, the rewards are only XP or currencies like the gold-currency or competitive points or maybe extra lootboxes and hopefully not exclusive permanent endorsement rewards, like exclusive skins, player icons or sprays.

Yeah the rewards are probably something along the first category, at most it might be icons/sprays, I'm fairly certain it won't be skins.

Either way I don't think anything would be worth of actually trying to grind the system, that sounds like a fast way to early burnout. I'll just keep going normally, if I get something then great, if not it's no biggie.

The Offense and Defense roles have been collapsed into Damage. The game will only have 3 roles now.

I'm convinced they did this for the sole reason of protecting defense heroes. Most GLs would ban defense heroes from being used. This way, if you'd want to ban defense heroes you'd have to ban attack heroes too, and then the team would just be tank and support.

What makes this even more obvious (to me at least) is that they gave the reasoning "people will be less confused." Complete bullshit lmao

Yeah the rewards are probably something along the first category, at most it might be icons/sprays, I'm fairly certain it won't be skins.

Either way I don't think anything would be worth of actually trying to grind the system, that sounds like a fast way to early burnout. I'll just keep going normally, if I get something then great, if not it's no biggie.

Well, I am a very dedicated collector, I want it all! So far I have 100% skins, 100% player icons (except top 500, which I accepted), 100% achievements and 100% of all sprays/emotes etc in the hero gallery (again except top 500 sprays). Missing golden weapons, which I get eventually and don't wanna miss anything except for the top 500 items.